The former chief, however, went into Monday’s hearing knowing that his attorney had already filed an appeal to the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board.

White, surrounded by supporters, his family and attorney, laid out in a prepared statement a rebuttal to all of Holden’s accusations for why White was being fired. As White read the statement, Holden and Murphy Foster, the mayor’s attorney, interjected multiple times, asking for clarification. But under the direction of his attorney, White did not respond.

As White left, Holden said he would return in 10 minutes with his decision, but the chief made his way outside with his family. When asked about the hearing, White referred all questions to his attorney Jill Craft but thanked supporters and said he cares about the people of Baton Rouge.

Craft, was never optimistic about Holden’s eventual decision and said she hopes her client fares better with the civil service board.

Shortly after announcing his decision, Holden said his office has no jurisdiction over the civil service board, however, the mayor’s office claims that White is not entitled to a civil service hearing.

“We still stand by that,” Holden said. “But I think there's another question left out there: ‘can a civil service rule trump the plan of government?’ And all of those questions have to be answered. We’ll have to see; only time will tell.”

Holden said Baton Rouge is a home-rule charter city and “that gives us a lot more leeway than a lot of other cities have been given based upon the constitution.” In this case, state law doesn’t trump city plan of government, Holden said.

“We already launched an appeal,” Craft said. It begins with conflicting dates as to when White was officially fired. While White and his attorney claims he was fired on Feb. 6, Holden and his attorney assert the dismissal happened after Monday's hearing.

In claiming that the firing occurred on the earlier date, Craft wanted to be sure not to miss any deadlines in the appeals process.

“If there 10-day deadline on one side and a 15-day day deadline on the other side, it’s not prudent not to meet all those deadlines as rapidly as possible,” Craft said.

No date has been set for the civil service board hearing but it could last multiple days, Craft said. At the board hearing, White and Holden will be able to call on witnesses to testify and have their lawyers present to speak.

Despite Holden issuing a 14-point letter outlining the city's reason for firing White, Craft said she still doesn’t fully understand the breadth of the allegations because they are non-specific.

Craft, however, said she knows on their side they have the people who speak the truth about White’s tenure.

“The mayor has the burden of proof,” she said. “He has to prove just cause, (the firing) was not in bad faith and not arbitrary or capricious.”

If the civil service board doesn’t rule in White’s favor, the next step would be to file an appeal in the 19th Judicial Court and begin anew with a hearing -- and a judge ultimately deciding, Craft said. From there, the appeals and a possible parallel lawsuit could also take place, Craft explained to the media. The process is expected to take months at a minimum.

“I think he is still trying to deal with this one,” Craft said when asked of White’s future employment opportunities. “I know he’s pretty shell-shocked and the accusations are pretty damning.”